Eumetsat Approves Design for Next-Generation Weather Satellites

摘要

Europe's weather-satellite organization approved the design of a Meteosat Third Generation (MTG) system to be launched starting in 2015 and to include two identical satellite platforms carrying separate suites of instruments. Tentatively budgeted at 2.5 billion euros ($3.75 billion), MTG will include construction of six satellites four imaging spacecraft to be launched in sets of two, with one serving as backup to the other; and two satellites equipped with infrared and near-infrared sounding instruments that would be launched some eight years apart. Meeting Oct. 9-10 in Darmstadt, Germany, the council of the 22-nation Eumetsat placed the MTG process squarely in the path of the European Space Agency (ESA), whose governments are scheduled to vote on their share of MTG at a Nov. 25-26 meeting of ESA governments.